Nope. Ask a clippers or Lakers fan. If LeBron was all that, he wouldn't have missed the playoffs without Davis. He sucks balls on defense in the regular season, getting blown by often. He is not the defensive leader of his team. Kawhi is an all time great defender when he wants, and he played no defense last season. The reason the rockets didn't win it all because the rest of the team without harden couldn't win a f'ing thing except in one season, the one with Paul's hamstring against the most talented team of all time. (To which you'll reply, he couldn't beat a Durant-less Warriors with a fat and slow CP3 *facepalm*). You seem to have convinced yourself that Harden is no LeBron, then why wouldn't you see he needs more talent around him than LeBron - which is exactly what I'm saying, and he has never had more talent around him than when LeBron has won titles. Not to mention LeBron got his ass dragged all over the floor by the very same Durant's Warriors. Maybe you just want to **** on Harden even if there's no logic involved.
Yeah but when you also have the worst defensive rating in the history of the NBA, it's not necessarily that awesome.
Okay we did the opinion thing now let’s bolster our beliefs with some facts. I’ll start: This destroys all dumb narratives surrounding LeBron, defense, effort and the people who fundamentally don’t understand any of those things beyond an ESON First Take level. Edit: Actually this video REALLY confirms this entire discussion. If you actually look at defensive impact metrics Kawhi and LeBron have clearly been good in their LA careers by any measure. Harden was only good in 2020. Parts of 18 and 19 but bad those years on the whole. And the stats show it. 12-17 Harden was a defensive disaster most of the time.
Harden is a flawed player, no doubt. BUT the Rockets still managed to win more in his time here than they had in the 15 years before he got here. ( 1 playoff win in that span)
So you are trying to spin this into a BAD thing? That is obtuse if so. Please use inductive instead of deductive reason because you suck at deduction.
Do you have any more dumb takes to share? Nets becoming a worse defense is due to Nets losing 2 excellent defenders in Jarrett Allen and Taurean Prince, not due to Harden. Cavs are even better defensively after acquiring both players. Causation and correlation. Educate yourself on the difference. Doubt it helps you but every little bit counts amirite?
Not true. If we are going by the numbers. Especially the defensive impact metrics. https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/nba-player-ratings/ Check his defensive RAPTOR for youself. Now check his DRPM for those years. http://www.espn.com/nba/statistics/rpm/_/year/2014/sort/ORPM RAPTOR pretty much only ever has him as a slight negative on defense. DRPM has him as a really bad defender in 2012-2013 and in 2016-2017. Thats it. And in 2012-2013 we had a top 16 defense so defensive disaster is stretching it there too. Again false. Both DRPM and Defensive RAPTOR have hime as a positive on defense for the whole year. Actually his best defensive years if you are going by the numbers. Edit: I had to go back and double check, we were not a top 6 defense in 2012-2013
the goal is to win titles correct? Did we win a title with the best offensive rating in history? Yes or no.
Both guys play plenty of defense. Yes they take plays off but they were not bad defenders the way Harden was even when he bothered to try.
Oh, you think that's science. You think I can't pull a video full of stats that says LeBron is a bad defender. No worries, I understand where you're coming from.
